Milestones and much more: Demon Deacons torture Maryland

Wake Forest receiver Michael Campanaro, left, and quarterback Tanner Price celebrate after Campanaro threw a touchdown pass to Price during the second quarter of Saturday's ACC game against Maryland.

The Associated Press

By Conor O'Neill / Times-News

Published: Sunday, October 20, 2013 at 12:44 AM.

WINSTON-SALEM — In a game that started with Arnold Palmer riding on the back of a motorcycle, the Wake Forest football team was plenty revved up for its homecoming game against Maryland.

The Demon Deacons pounced on Maryland 34-10 to turn the Terrapins’ final trip to BB&T Field as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference into a celebration of Wake Forest on Saturday.

Senior receiver Michael Campanaro caught 11 passes for 122 yards — and also threw for a touchdown — to break Desmond Clark’s school record for career receptions. Campanaro has 217 catches, one more than Clark.

“Obviously I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished here at Wake Forest, but … that’s not really ever crossed my mind,” Grobe said. “For me, I’m just so excited about the past couple of wins, beating (North Carolina) State and beating Maryland, it’s huge for our football team.”

Palmer, the legendary golfer of seven major championships and a Wake Forest alum, opened the gates in the corner of the stadium and rode on the back of the Demon Deacon mascot’s motorcycle onto the field with the team.

For a team that dealt with slow starts in a few games earlier this season, Wake Forest (4-3 overall, 2-2 ACC) was clearly fired up from the first surge of the motorcycle’s engine.

“Early on in the season, a few games, we had … a few slow starts and that came back to bite us,” said safety A.J. Marshall. “But we really try to eliminate slow starts so we can get our energy up and build energy, especially at home.”

Wake Forest started the game with Nikita Whitlock’s 14-yard sack, in which the 5-foot-11, 250-pound senior nose tackle came through the line untouched.

“Shoot, sacks on the first play of the game? That just gets the energy up and it’s just a cycle,” Whitlock said. “When everybody fires on all cylinders, you can’t stop us.”

That helped Wake Forest to a short field on its first possession, which ended on a 1-yard touchdown run by Josh Harris. On the last play of the first quarter, Wake Forest kicker Chad Hedlund drilled a 51-yard field goal to put the Demon Deacons ahead 10-0.

Maryland (5-2, 1-2) sustained a couple drives early, but couldn’t finish against a defense that fed off Whitlock’s monstrous start.

“My team fed off me and I think we kept it going. The D-line was playing great, Zach (Thompson, defensive end) was playing great and I think it just transferred over,” Whitlock said. “The DBs were getting picks, the linebackers were getting big hits, so I think we accomplished the goal of starting fast.”

An interception by Merrill Noel — and 49-yard return — put Wake Forest at Maryland’s 18-yard line midway with 6:33 left in the first half. Tanner Price capitalized on a 3-yard touchdown run.

Wake Forest delved deeper into its playbook after an interception by Marshall set up the Demon Deacons at Maryland’s 40-yard line.

On the second play, Campanaro took a backward pass and completed a 25-yard pass to Tyree Harris. Four plays later, on a third-and-1 from the 4-yard line, Campanaro took a pitch from Dominique Green and lofted a pass to a wide-open Price in the end zone.

“I kind of knew that was coming because we had two of them in this week,” Campanaro said. “We had one around the 50, and then one around the goal line. Got the 50 one, and third-and-1, I was like, ‘I think they’re going to call this to me. Yep, hopefully it’s open.’

“It worked perfect, great play design. Tanner was wide open.”

Of Wake Forest’s six possessions in the first half, four started in Maryland territory. Those led to three touchdowns and a field goal as the Demon Deacons built a 24-3 halftime lead.

The most drama of the second half came midway through the third quarter, when quarterback Caleb Rowe relieved starter C.J. Brown and threw a 56-yard touchdown to Levern Jacobs. That made it a 24-10 Wake Forest lead.

“We broke down, we got away from ourselves. We didn’t execute the call like we should have, like we practiced,” Marshall said. “If I could go back, I wish we could go back and line that one play back up and re-run it.”

But the Demon Deacons responded with a nine-play, 88-yard drive that ended with Price’s perfectly lofted 10-yard touchdown pass to Campanaro toward the back corner of the end zone. It was one of Campanaro’s four catches for 48 yards on the drive.

That made Price the second ACC player since 2000 and first Wake Forest player ever to record a passing, rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game. The other recent player to accomplish was Clemson’s C.J. Spiller in 2009.

“When they scored, they kind of took a little bit of the momentum away,” Price said. “But we got together as an offense and said, ‘We’re not going to let them regain any momentum. We’re going to take it down the field and we’re going to score here.’ ”

Campanaro had one catch between then and the final possession of the game, when he caught a 5-yard pass on a screen to tie the record. The catch to break the record came in a fitting fashion as he hauled in a 12-yard out along the home sideline on a third-and-8.

“You’ve gotta work for the record, right?” Price said with a laugh. “That last catch he had was a lot of work but he did a good job catching it and I’m happy for him.”

Maryland lost receivers Deon Long and Stefon Diggs to injuries in the second and fourth quarters, respectively. Long had four catches for 43 yards and Diggs had eight catches for 67 yards and 111 kickoff return yards. Maryland coach Randy Edsall said Long has a broken tibia and fibula and that Diggs fractured his fibula.

■ EXTRA POINTS …: Former Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry and former basketball star Rodney Rogers were among notable alums in attendance. … Campanaro brought some perspective to breaking Clark’s receptions record: “I remember playing with Desmond Clark in Madden growing up, I was a middle schooler.” … Grobe said he wanted Campanaro to break the record Saturday so that it wouldn’t be a focus ahead of this week’s game at Miami. … Josh Harris, a senior, led Wake Forest with 47 rushing yards. He’s 27 yards away from reaching 2,000 for his career. … Tyree Harris, a freshman receiver, had two catches for 16 yards this season before notching six catches for 49 yards against Maryland. … Palmer also opened the gate for a 42-32 victory against Maryland on Oct. 10, 2009. He’s the first person to ever open the gate twice.

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WINSTON-SALEM — In a game that started with Arnold Palmer riding on the back of a motorcycle, the Wake Forest football team was plenty revved up for its homecoming game against Maryland.

The Demon Deacons pounced on Maryland 34-10 to turn the Terrapins’ final trip to BB&T Field as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference into a celebration of Wake Forest on Saturday.

Senior receiver Michael Campanaro caught 11 passes for 122 yards — and also threw for a touchdown — to break Desmond Clark’s school record for career receptions. Campanaro has 217 catches, one more than Clark.

“Obviously I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished here at Wake Forest, but … that’s not really ever crossed my mind,” Grobe said. “For me, I’m just so excited about the past couple of wins, beating (North Carolina) State and beating Maryland, it’s huge for our football team.”

Palmer, the legendary golfer of seven major championships and a Wake Forest alum, opened the gates in the corner of the stadium and rode on the back of the Demon Deacon mascot’s motorcycle onto the field with the team.

For a team that dealt with slow starts in a few games earlier this season, Wake Forest (4-3 overall, 2-2 ACC) was clearly fired up from the first surge of the motorcycle’s engine.

“Early on in the season, a few games, we had … a few slow starts and that came back to bite us,” said safety A.J. Marshall. “But we really try to eliminate slow starts so we can get our energy up and build energy, especially at home.”

Wake Forest started the game with Nikita Whitlock’s 14-yard sack, in which the 5-foot-11, 250-pound senior nose tackle came through the line untouched.

“Shoot, sacks on the first play of the game? That just gets the energy up and it’s just a cycle,” Whitlock said. “When everybody fires on all cylinders, you can’t stop us.”

That helped Wake Forest to a short field on its first possession, which ended on a 1-yard touchdown run by Josh Harris. On the last play of the first quarter, Wake Forest kicker Chad Hedlund drilled a 51-yard field goal to put the Demon Deacons ahead 10-0.

Maryland (5-2, 1-2) sustained a couple drives early, but couldn’t finish against a defense that fed off Whitlock’s monstrous start.

“My team fed off me and I think we kept it going. The D-line was playing great, Zach (Thompson, defensive end) was playing great and I think it just transferred over,” Whitlock said. “The DBs were getting picks, the linebackers were getting big hits, so I think we accomplished the goal of starting fast.”

An interception by Merrill Noel — and 49-yard return — put Wake Forest at Maryland’s 18-yard line midway with 6:33 left in the first half. Tanner Price capitalized on a 3-yard touchdown run.

Wake Forest delved deeper into its playbook after an interception by Marshall set up the Demon Deacons at Maryland’s 40-yard line.

On the second play, Campanaro took a backward pass and completed a 25-yard pass to Tyree Harris. Four plays later, on a third-and-1 from the 4-yard line, Campanaro took a pitch from Dominique Green and lofted a pass to a wide-open Price in the end zone.

“I kind of knew that was coming because we had two of them in this week,” Campanaro said. “We had one around the 50, and then one around the goal line. Got the 50 one, and third-and-1, I was like, ‘I think they’re going to call this to me. Yep, hopefully it’s open.’

“It worked perfect, great play design. Tanner was wide open.”

Of Wake Forest’s six possessions in the first half, four started in Maryland territory. Those led to three touchdowns and a field goal as the Demon Deacons built a 24-3 halftime lead.

The most drama of the second half came midway through the third quarter, when quarterback Caleb Rowe relieved starter C.J. Brown and threw a 56-yard touchdown to Levern Jacobs. That made it a 24-10 Wake Forest lead.

“We broke down, we got away from ourselves. We didn’t execute the call like we should have, like we practiced,” Marshall said. “If I could go back, I wish we could go back and line that one play back up and re-run it.”

But the Demon Deacons responded with a nine-play, 88-yard drive that ended with Price’s perfectly lofted 10-yard touchdown pass to Campanaro toward the back corner of the end zone. It was one of Campanaro’s four catches for 48 yards on the drive.

That made Price the second ACC player since 2000 and first Wake Forest player ever to record a passing, rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game. The other recent player to accomplish was Clemson’s C.J. Spiller in 2009.

“When they scored, they kind of took a little bit of the momentum away,” Price said. “But we got together as an offense and said, ‘We’re not going to let them regain any momentum. We’re going to take it down the field and we’re going to score here.’ ”

Campanaro had one catch between then and the final possession of the game, when he caught a 5-yard pass on a screen to tie the record. The catch to break the record came in a fitting fashion as he hauled in a 12-yard out along the home sideline on a third-and-8.

“You’ve gotta work for the record, right?” Price said with a laugh. “That last catch he had was a lot of work but he did a good job catching it and I’m happy for him.”

Maryland lost receivers Deon Long and Stefon Diggs to injuries in the second and fourth quarters, respectively. Long had four catches for 43 yards and Diggs had eight catches for 67 yards and 111 kickoff return yards. Maryland coach Randy Edsall said Long has a broken tibia and fibula and that Diggs fractured his fibula.

■ EXTRA POINTS …: Former Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry and former basketball star Rodney Rogers were among notable alums in attendance. … Campanaro brought some perspective to breaking Clark’s receptions record: “I remember playing with Desmond Clark in Madden growing up, I was a middle schooler.” … Grobe said he wanted Campanaro to break the record Saturday so that it wouldn’t be a focus ahead of this week’s game at Miami. … Josh Harris, a senior, led Wake Forest with 47 rushing yards. He’s 27 yards away from reaching 2,000 for his career. … Tyree Harris, a freshman receiver, had two catches for 16 yards this season before notching six catches for 49 yards against Maryland. … Palmer also opened the gate for a 42-32 victory against Maryland on Oct. 10, 2009. He’s the first person to ever open the gate twice.